Page 14 of Collin: Episodes 10-12
“I mean, I know that. I guess I never thought about how I knock.” Collin put the food on a desk. “You sure you’re okay?”
Ash rubbed his head. “I’ll live. Why are you back early?”
Collin shrugged and sat down. “Mom’s going through a sad moment. But she doesn’t like my sister and I around for it that much. I mean, we don’t seem to help.”
“Sucks.” Ash opened up the food and grabbed the granola in both hands. “This looks good. Not your normal style though. You usually bring me donuts and shit.”
“Mr. Reevesworth ordered this time. It’s all healthy stuff.” Collin opened his own meal. It smelled good. His stomach was more than pleased to see it. They’d eaten light the night before.
Ash was mostly finished eating and Collin was halfway through his food before Collin broke the quiet. “You still planning on living here, or do you need help looking for a better place? I have time this weekend if you need a wingman.”
Ash shrugged. “Apartments feel weird. Having my own apartment feels weird. Even if I get one, why would I leave here and go there? That makes no sense. Everything I do is here.”
“So you can have your own space? Places for your hobbies. Keep your things?”
Ash shook his head and the rest of his body with it, making his chair gyrate. “I don’t even have anything to put in an apartment. All I need to do is sleep and shower and have a change of clothes. I do all that here. But if I have one of these apartments”—Ash made air quotes in the air, holding his spoon between two fingers—“then I have to clean it, and think about it, and go in and out of it. Do you know how much time I wasted moving back and forth when I tried living in my last one?”
“No.”
“Like thirty minutes a day. It was awful. Thirty minutes of doing something and not liking it and not getting anything out of it. And I know, I know how some adults are like ‘oh, I commute two hours each way, six days a week’ or some such shit, and that like makes no sense. I mean, seriously, you better be getting something really nice from all that time.”
“Walking is good for you.” Collin shrugged.
“I do walk. I run up and down the stairs, from the basement to the top of the building, five times a day.” Ash pounded on his upper thigh with a fist. “My legs have never been stronger.”
“Why do you do that?”
“Because it feels good.”
“But you don’t want to walk on the sidewalk from an apartment building?”
“Collin, dude, sidewalks are slow. There’s people on them. No one uses the stairs here, at least not much. I can go as fast as I want, but if I’m out there, I have to worry about people, and step around their messes, and walk when the sign says to, and, like, gah! There’s all kinds of things. If I go out there, I don’t want to be out there during commutes. I better be getting a donut, or a coffee, or something. Not just moving my existence from one place to another because people think that’s the thing to do.”
Collin poked at his food. “You have a point.” Frankly, he was out of arguments that didn’t start with because society will judge you.
“Thank you.” Ash slouched over his bowl. “I know you think I’m weird.”
“I’m the one who rented a pantry and then volunteered to be homeless.” Collin finished his meal and started to clean up. “You do go outside though, right? See the sun?”
Ash pointed to the ceiling. “I mean, I know better than to not see the sun. There was this nurse when I was in jail who yelled at me about vitamin D, so I know if I don’t go out there enough I’ll get weird and sad.”
Collin laughed nervously. “Yeah, it’s a thing. I have to take vitamin D in the winter because it doesn’t matter if I get out there enough or not; living this far north in the winter gets to me.”
Ash shook his head and patted Collin on the shoulder. “Aye, man, you got the SAD.”
Laughter burst out of Collin’s nose. “Where’d that accent come from?”
Ash smirked behind his red bangs like the imp he was. “Wouldn’t you like to know. Bet you’re too young to remember.”
Collin shook his spoon at Ash’s face. “I’m almost old enough to be your father.”
Ash giggled. “Only if you had me at like seven years old. Also, ew…not cool.”
Collin left Ash to start his day, including showering and washing his clothes in the basement. Mr. Reevesworth was off the phone but still replying to emails when Collin slid quietly into the office and sat on the edge of the desk. He smiled and finished typing, then closed his laptop.
“Since we have the time, I want to show you the research room for the train project, the one getting us in all the trouble with Bernstein and co.”
Collin popped onto his feet. That sounded promising.
